A driver of a motor vehicle may become distracted under certain conditions, which are typically characterized by increased mental workload. A related situation occurs in a vehicle capable of autonomous operation, where the nominal driver may lose situation awareness, which may be unsafe under certain anticipated workload conditions requiring driver response. Automated spoken and multimodal dialogue systems are becoming more common in motor vehicles and can be a factor in reducing potential distraction and/or reduced situation awareness of the driver.
It is thus desirable to have methods for reducing driver distraction and/or reducing driver situation unawareness while engaging in spoken dialogue with an automated dialogue system. This goal is met by the present invention.